Sunday, February 24, 2013

Carpal Tunnel, Carpe Diem

Lots of people noticed my wrist brace today. This leads to an explanation and a story.

I acquired a case of carpal tunnel from [blush] playing too much Minecraft. (Not very glamorous, I know. That's why I compensate by creating glamor elsewhere in my life.)


Due to my injury (which I incurred bravely while battling
zombies toddlers balrogs), I’ve spent the last month playing for primary one-handed. For the first few songs, nobody seemed to notice, and I quickly got very good at faking things by picking up most notes with my right hand.


At first, the challenge itself was enough. Then the accomplishment itself was enough.
After a while, though, I started to get bored again, mostly because I had been playing “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” over and over. 

My mother-in-law says that only the boring are bored. Very well, I decided to do my duty to make the world a better, or at least more interesting, place.

Seizing an inspiration, I announced from the piano that if senior primary did a really good job singing, I would play the song with *gasp!* one hand over my head!!

I hammed it up, naturally, waving my left hand around and adding in little arpeggios and trills. Everyone gasped in amazement.

When I finished, they applauded. I took a bow.

The kids got some practice, followed by free entertainment. I got some useful mileage out of my affliction, plus some recognition for my achievement.

I just *ahem* forgot to mention that I had already played the song one-handed forty-odd times over the previous two weeks.

Now I’m wondering what other tricks I could try to enliven things.

Maybe I’ll practice playing the March song blindfolded. Or maybe I’ll attempt to play blindfolded without practicing at all. Or maybe I’ll cheat and make a “blindfold” that looks opaque but isn’t.

A good stage magician does not reveal all her secrets. It creates an aura of mystery. And
glamor  glamour.

6 comments:

Carolyn said...

I support playing with your eyes closed. You could even stage a contest of some sort -- whoever sings the loudest can come put their hands over your eyes to make sure you're not peeking!

Krenn said...

this would explain your disturbing absence on my minecraft server.

have you asked Jon about transferring the server files to your home server?

Gail said...

Carolyn--rookie mistake. Never, ever, encourage the primary (especially not junior primary) to have a loudness contest. It sounds like a Gator's football game. Scratch that. It sounds so horrible, it's like an LSU football game. Shouts. Screams. All volume, no presentation. No melody whatsoever. You can almost see the nodes growing in the kids' vocal chords.

Other than that, I like the idea. A child, picked by some other criteria, could come inspect and monitor me against cheating.

Unknown said...

What a fun way to spice up Primary. Too bad I missed it!

Jon said...

Next, you need to start limiting the number of fingers you use.

Brian Thomas said...

Sigh, the lack of creativity! How about playing while facing backwards? Toes-only? Upside-down? All three at once?! Or my personal favorite: playing piano while juggling. That would totally make my day.